Orthodynamic Roundup

[Faust2D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif I spent about two hours with the bijou -> km105 -> ECR-500 rig yesterday, and i have to say it was very nice. I really must add a muting/delay circuit and pre-out jacks to the Bijou to make that rig easier/safer to start up. Currently i wait for the bijou to warm up, then plug the kenwood into the headphone jack, then turn on the kenwood. Your Dared MP-5 will probably do a good job of driving the ECR transformer box. I can loan you my ECR-500, you know. It's not as though i don't have other cans to keep me distracted.

Yeah, I know man! Thanks for your offer! Once I get the box here from Japan we can talk.

I can't wait to see what the soundstage is like on them.

[Random rant on]
I spend a lot of time yesterday listening to my speaker rig and sadly I have to say I prefer it to most of my headphone gear. It's the smaller SAP Trios with wooden horn powered by my hybrid tube/MOSFET DIY amp that I was listening to.

However the detail and intimacy seems greater with headphone, so I am not now where I stared when I fist was forced to listen to headphones due to kid/wife/family disturbance issues. Now I really appreciate headphones for a different experience they give you. I now sometimes reach for headphones as a choice, not as a last resort.

[Random rant over]

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif I spent about two hours with the bijou -> km105 -> ECR-500 rig yesterday, and i have to say it was very nice. I really must add a muting/delay circuit and pre-out jacks to the Bijou to make that rig easier/safer to start up. Currently i wait for the bijou to warm up, then plug the kenwood into the headphone jack, then turn on the kenwood. Your Dared MP-5 will probably do a good job of driving the ECR transformer box. I can loan you my ECR-500, you know. It's not as though i don't have other cans to keep me distracted.

Just thought you should know, Blutarsky would love to buy your ECR-500 after hearing it at the Colorado head-fi meet (or your SR-Lambda and transformer)... Like that will ever happen.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just thought you should know, Blutarsky would love to buy your ECR-500 after hearing it at the Colorado head-fi meet (or your SR-Lambda and transformer)... Like that will ever happen.

hehe. He's not the only one from that meet who wants one now.

And that was with the somewhat neutral all-rotel rig driving it. With a tubed preamp, it's like a hot fudge sundae for your ears.

Which, in retrospect, would be a terrible mess.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif My scanner wasn't available so I took pics with my camera for now.

Good enough. I'll phonoschlopp the image of the voice coil so Dmitriy can plunk it into his Waikiki.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy The Wharfey magnets aren't really rubber, it's a semi-flexible composite that breaks easily and can crumble quite easily if you were to scrunch it in your hand. it's not bent into place, it's molded or formed in an arc and then attached to the backing plates for strength.

Hm! Must still be a rubberized magnet, just with more magnetic pigment than a standard fridge magnet. That at least would explain the semi-flexible nature. But it was my impression that regular ferrites are molded too. Must've been cheaper to use the pigment/polymer-binder method.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy I'm not sure how they'd compare with actual fridge/rubber magnets for strength. I'm sure they can't be that far off.

Have you tested them with a Chinese restaurant menu on an actual fridge? or with a piece of sheet steel?


Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can't wait to see what the soundstage is like on them.

Did we ever establish what, if any, differences there are between the 400 and 500 drivers? They look very much alike.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D I spend a lot of time yesterday listening to my speaker rig and sadly I have to say I prefer it to most of my headphone gear. However the detail and intimacy seems greater with headphones... I now sometimes reach for headphones as a choice, not as a last resort.

Hey, you've come a long way. My motivation was a bit different, a partly-professional need to know what was on the recording, and poverty (couldn't afford speakers, then couldn't afford electrostatic speakers), but if you're reaching for headphones as an end in themselves, you've gotten over that hump which consists of an avalanche of recordings that from nearly the beginning of the stereo era have been intended for speaker listening exclusively. That's a mighty big hump. I love my speakers too (gonna marry 'em), but it's such a different experience and fraught with so many problems in a typical domestic room that to compare them is to... well, it'd be fun but mostly useless.

.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, I know man! Thanks for your offer! Once I get the box here from Japan we can talk. I can't wait to see what the soundstage is like on them. [Random rant on] I spend a lot of time yesterday listening to my speaker rig and sadly I have to say I prefer it most of my headphone gear. It's the smaller SAP Trios with wooden horn powered by my hybrid tube/MOSFET DIY amp that I was listening to. However the detail and intimacy seems greater with headphone, so I am not now where I stared when I fist was forced to listen to headphones due to kid/wife/family disturbance issues. Now I really appreciate headphones for a different experience they give you. I now sometimes reach for headphones as a choice, not as a last resort. [Random rant over]

Too prevent further disappointment, you may ship those speakers to me. I will store them for you on their stands in my listening room. As speakers are like cars and need to run occasionally, I will make sure they are properly maintained...

 

[Faust2D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey, you've come a long way. My motivation was a bit different, a partly-professional need to know what was on the recording, and poverty (couldn't afford speakers, then couldn't afford electrostatic speakers), but if you're reaching for headphones as an end in itself, you've gotten over that hump which consists of an avalanche of recordings that from nearly the beginning of the stereo era have been intended for speaker listening exclusively. That's a mighty big hump. I love my speakers too (gonna marry 'em), but it's such a different experience and fraught with so many problems in a typical domestic room that to compare them is to... well, it'd be fun but mostly useless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoilermakerFan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Too prevent further disappointment, you may ship those speakers to me. I will store them for you on their stands in my listening room. As speakers are like cars and need to run occasionally, I will make sure they are properly maintained...

Not sure if my original post was clear. I do prefer my speaker rig and think it's better than most of my headphones

as it should be for the money the damn thing cost me. But I do appreciate headphones now, to the point of occasionally choosing them over speaks even during day time when no one is asleep, he he.

P.S. TK33 are in my hands, sadly there is no amp at work to plug them into, so I will have to wait until I log them home, feed my kid, do all the household chores and well into the night hook them up to my Dared MP5

BoilermakerFan, if you transfer $2500 to my PayPal I will gladly ship them to you

I still have the original boxes from fine Italian cardboard

the box are made in Italy, just as these speakers are made from fine Italian betulla multi-layer wood, aged for at least three years and that's not a joke

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D /img/forum/go_quote.gif BoilermakerFan, if you transfer $2500 to my PayPal I will gladly ship them to you I still have the original boxes from fine Italian cardboard the box are made in Italy, just as these speakers are made from fine Italian betulla multi-layer wood, aged for at least three years and that's not a joke

$2500 Hong Kong Dollars I can swing... US Dollars, SWMBO would have my, uh, headphone holder on a stick in the front yard. That's why I DIY!

Awesome speakers though! I'll be building Fonkens with the FE127 early next year and would like to build a set of Elsinores too, but they are a little big for house.

 

[Faust2D]

So as you might have figure it out I traded HP-50S for Signet TK33. I got Wualta's TK33 today and I hooked up it to my Dared MP5 and and and...... it choked on it. It would cut out as soon as dynamic passage would come along, even at half volume. Very strange, butMP5 hates TK33. My MOSFET amp like them and plays nice with them, loud and clear.

Here is a pic for the TK33 and I finally got to use the EQ I had just sitting there for years

I also removed the old pads and installed new a bit bigger, but in other aspects the same pads with pleather intact. Got a bit more bass now, maybe as low as 60hz

 

[dBel84]

cool - they look a bit like the AT's too.

I was wondering if I would hear the echo of your call for bass but you cheated and added some eq

..dB

 

[spritzer]

Wow, 60Hz!!??!!

Btw. Those ECR400 drivers probably came from my old set and had a channel imbalance. I can't remember how bad it was though...

 

[smeggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, 60Hz!!??!! Btw. Those ECR400 drivers probably came from my old set and had a channel imbalance. I can't remember how bad it was though...

Yeah, I have way too much to do and I doubt I'd get to them for a very long time so I'm passing them on to Faust. I told him they were yours and had the channel imbalance. I figured they should go to someone else as they'd be waiting forever for me to get to them.

I still have hopes of reviving the 600 drivers.

 

[spritzer]

If worst comes to worst it would be possible to convert the ECR600 over to standard electrostatic operation with a very nice 1kV bias.

 

[smeggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer /img/forum/go_quote.gif If worst comes to worst it would be possible to convert the ECR600 over to standard electrostatic operation with a very nice 1kV bias.

 

[spritzer]

With a high enough bias it could work off Stax amps (with the bias coming from an external source) so there would be a new king amongst small electrostatics. I am a bit concerned about the material that Sony used to fabricate the driver shell, wasn't it supposed to be a semi-conductor of some sort?

 

[Faust2D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dBel84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif cool - they look a bit like the AT's too. I was wondering if I would hear the echo of your call for bass but you cheated and added some eq ..dB

They are AT's, Signet TK33 = ATH-8

Signet was U S market luxury brand.

And I guess they reasoned that no one needs bass below 60Hz....